Readers, please beware of internet ad scams. Next time if you receive an email from a guy so-called “Valentin Lopez” who claims that he represents Gera Agency and he would like to buy banner ad space on your site for Lacoste Company, just ignore it.
Banner Ad Scams
It starts off by sending you an innocent-sounding mail, which goes like this:
We would like to buy banner space on
(name of your site)
Hi,
I am sorry I have to write you to e-mail from who is information of the domain. But I could not find contact e-mail or feedback form on your site.
We are looking for new advertisement platforms and we are interested in your site malaysiannews.info.
Is it possible to place banner on your site on a fee basis?
Best regards,
Valentin Lopez
Then when we replied to his first mail, this is what we received:
Hello,
Thanks for reply to our proposal!
I represent Gera Agency. At the moment we are preparing an advertising campaign for Lacoste Company (it is a French company producing clothes, footwear, perfumery etc.) We already have designed banners for the campaign, they are the following sizes: 160×600, 240×400, 300×250, 336×280, 468×60, 728×90.
What can be your price for one banner (banner should appear at ALL pages of your site) of abovementioned sizes (please specify the place for the banner – top, bottom, left, right)? Please mention a normal link for banner, without javascript code and set prices in US dollars per month.
Best regards,
Valentin Lopez.
site: www.geraagency.com
e-mail: [email protected]
phone: + (0)9 78 62 85 38
Online Ad Scams
When we read the above mail, we already smelled a rat. Firstly because our site is not that well established to be of interests to an international renowned Lacoste company. Secondly, our blog is mainly from Malaysian readers. Thirdly, Malaysian Happenings is not a fashion or sportswear blog. Another giveaway hint is when it says he cannot find our contact email. Our contact email is printed clearly right at the footer of the site.
So, what we did was, we googled “160×600, 240×400, 300×250, 336×280, 468×60, 728×90” and we found some information from a forum, saying that it is fraud. Then we checked further by goggling “Valentin Lopez scam” and “banner ad scams” we were right. It is indeed a scam. According to one of the sites, it says this unscrupulous scammer so-called Valentin Lopez uses other domains like:
Matthieu Colin / Nana Agency
Oscar Meunier / Kervel Agency
Eliott Arnaud / Larko Agency
Lilian Marchand / Lemma Agency
Rayan Meyer / Bevesto Agency
Martin Lefevre/ Rita Agency
Killian Blanchard / Jino Agency
Nora Morin / Kara Agency
Sacha Charles / Lana Agency
You can read and find out more from http://moonpixel.com/banner-scam-with-adv-plugin-for-wordpress-ads-from-paris-agency/ and http://www.sleeandtopher.com/warning-bloggers-beware-of-blog-banner-ad-scam-with-adv-plugin/.
So, if you come across any email by any of the above domain, just delete it. For some of you who really want to sell ad space, you can let BuySells to handle it for you.
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